World Leaders Smooch
Italian store Benetton on Wednesday launched a provocative publicity campaign with photo montages showing the pope kissing an imam on the lips and the U.S. president smooching his Chinese counterpart. [Naharnet]
You know what’s missing to this ad? A picture of Alloush and Chukur smooching.
Nov 17, 2011
two words fuckin’-pathetic!!
Wouldn’t call it pathetic, more like bad taste, disturbing, weak…
Benetton has always tried to use shock advertisement like this (although here they really went extreme for a meh effect).
I think it’s effective and has a positive message to boot. It’s also amusing and better than some of Benettons past “shock advertising” (using real hearts, a newborn baby, a photo of a guy dying of aids surrounded by his family and so on).
And it’ll piss off people who actually care about politics.
“Benetton has been forced to pull an advertisement featuring a fake picture of Pope Benedict XVI kissing a top Egyptian imam on the lips.” THAT SUCKS
http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16112069
It might be excellent advertising but I don’t like it. If you have to shock to sell, then you have nothing to sell… Anyway, does Benetton still exist???
This ad really sucks. Enough that in the US they have what is called ‘gay rights’. These images shouldn’t be spread even if they are fake.
wow.
lol
there are LOTS of ways to spread messages of love WITHOUT insulting others believes
this is gonna make haters hate MORE and not love
they are just grabbing attention ONLY and NOT spreading the “message” and yes pathetic ignorant people
Most modern and civilized countries have what you are calling “gay rights” and ” Women’s rights ” etc.. these are basic human rights. If you don’t agree with this, you can go and live in countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia where everyone lives in the closet of who they really are and no so such rights are respected for any Human regardless of background.
yeah if you should be so called “modern” u should insult others believes right ? ;) like one of the pictures above
I believe Benetton has a factory in Syria, then they should come out with arab version of that ad like:
Assad kssing King Abddallah or
Mou3alem kissing Hmad bin Jassem or
Yatanyaho kissing Najaad
Aoun kissing Gaegaa
Hariri kissing Berri
If the photo portrayed the Pope kissing a female it would have been offensive and insulting as well for a man that’s religious and supposed to be celibate and highly regarded by his followers.
The point is this.. Tolerance is respect for those that are different from us, regardless of whether or not we agree with their religion or personal characteristics.
My original comment was not to defend the Photos above but as a reply to one commentator ” Enough that in the US they have what is called ‘gay rights”
so this is what everyone has been talking about on twitter. Um, I don’t like it… the concept and message they probably wanted to send had good intentions, but the execution… not so good… at all.
For the pope/imam one- I think they wanted to shock but they knew it wouldn’t really pass. I’m not against the idea but its just not going to pass with people especially in countries that are relatively conservative. Actually anywhere, unfortunately. People still hatefully discuss shows like Glee for portrayal of gay characters. I agree with Aline’s point- it just didn’t work. Its more to do with audience though than the actual ads.
wow, it’s weird how much negative reviews this ad is receiving in this post. i should probably note that although this ad campaign is for Benetton, but it specifically supports their UnHate Foundation [unhatefoundation.org]
it was probably missunderstood here because you can’t read the text under the Benetton logo in the above thumbnails, so this is a link for better visuals: [http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/17676/benetton-unhate-campaign-features-kissing-world-leaders.html]
besides, during the Berlin Wall teardown in 1989, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev kissed his East German counterpart Eric Honecker to express their deep respect and tolerance for each other. the kiss wasn’t passionate then, they took it to a whole new level. and this is what’s happening here! this campaign is not about gay rights (otherwise why would angela merkel and nicholas sarkozy be used here for?) this campaign is about acceptance of the other, even if it is, in most cases here, the enemy.